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  But as we landed, I noticed a very welcome sight: travelling swiftly across the airfield was my guards’ red vehicle. I jumped off Pyrites and waited.

  It came to a halt, the driver’s door swung open and Jamie jumped out. He took a step towards me – and then stopped; the relieved smile slid from his face upon seeing my guarded expression. It was so good to see him, and it would have been so easy to walk straight into his arms – but there were so many things between us, the risk of him losing his wings by helping me being one of them. No matter my feelings, it was better I kept my distance.

  ‘How did you find me?’ I said at last.

  ‘You’ve been on television,’ he replied.

  ‘And on these electronic devices,’ Kerfuffle added, waving an iPad at me.

  I wasn’t surprised; the internet was everywhere these days.

  ‘It should be a bloody mess,’ Jamie said, ‘but as usual, what the newspapers don’t know, they make up. The favourite explanation so far is that it’s all a big publicity stunt by some unknown group of environmentalists.’

  ‘How do they explain Pyrites?’

  ‘CGI, mirrors and holograms. The Prime Minster has stated categorically that a dragon has not been flying over London and the Home Counties.’

  I couldn’t help but smile. It was so typical of this world.

  ‘Where’s Vaybian?’

  ‘Persephone has him, and Jinx.’

  ‘Guardian,’ a voice called, and I looked over my shoulder to see Pasqual, followed by Charles and Peter.

  Jamie turned away as though he hadn’t heard, and I was almost immediately surrounded by my guards, who subtly moved me out of Pasqual’s earshot.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Jamie whispered, ‘Charles and Peter will detain him.’ I could see Pasqual trying to get away from them to make his way over to us, but the two angels were having none of it.

  ‘I told you they’re as loyal to me as they come,’ Jamie whispered, seeing me watching them.

  I looked up into his eyes and came straight to the point. ‘We have one huge, bloody great problem’ – my guards all snapped to attention, eyes on me – ‘and maybe it’s better you don’t know.’

  ‘Let me be the judge of that.’

  He was right; whether he helped me or not would be his decision, and anyway, I needed his help. I couldn’t do this alone. ‘I don’t think Persephone is particularly keen on the biblical approach any more – she’s going straight for the apocalyptic. She’s flying him to Naples.’

  I heard Shenanigans suck in breath and Kerfuffle muttered, ‘Not good, not good.’

  Jamie ran his hand through his curls and gazed at Pasqual, who was still being delayed by the two other angels. ‘You realise how serious this is? There are whole communities living around the base of Vesuvius and up onto its slopes. If it should suddenly erupt, it could kill millions.’

  ‘Three million,’ Shenanigans butted in, holding up the iPad.

  ‘Fuck it,’ I said.

  Jamie put his hands on my shoulders. ‘How was Jinx when you last saw him?’

  ‘He knew what he was doing. I think he was putting on an act for her.’

  ‘You think?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said, my voice determined.

  ‘Has she said where he is?’ Pasqual asked from behind me, making me jump.

  I swung around, but he was too busy glowering at Jamie to notice. Charles and Peter hovered anxiously behind him, their ever-present angelic smiles slipping a bit.

  ‘We have another problem to deal with,’ Jamie told him, and gestured for Pasqual to move away from us.

  As they walked off Jamie’s expression was unreadable. What was he going to tell Pasqual? What did I want him to tell Pasqual? Did I really want him to risk his wings for Jinx? I didn’t know any of the answers.

  Neither did I have the time to dwell on it; as soon as Jamie had led Pasqual out of earshot my guards and the two angels circled around me.

  ‘Mistress, we must get to Naples.’

  Pyrites pushed his head up under my hand, purring at me.

  ‘It’s too far, boy; and you wouldn’t be able to carry all of us.’ Besides, a drakon crossing the border would most certainly have them scrambling their Eurofighters.

  ‘There must be a way,’ Charles said.

  I thought for a moment. ‘Why can’t we do what Amaliel did? Why can’t we hop back into the Underlands and then out again, but in Naples?’

  ‘Because our kind will be waiting for you,’ Peter said with an apologetic smile.

  ‘But if we did it really quickly, how would they find us?’

  ‘The journey between the worlds may feel like moments, but it takes longer than it appears. The surge of power from within the Overlands would alert them and they would follow its progress to the spot where you are likely to appear.’

  ‘Thank you for the warning, Peter – you and Charles might want to turn away now. I don’t want you to risk your wings.’

  They both gave grateful smiles and stepped away, although I noticed they took up positions as though they were still guarding us.

  I turned back to my guard. ‘There’s also the problem of us only being able to travel through a few at a time.’

  ‘Only from the Underlands to the Overlands – going home is a different thing altogether,’ Kerfuffle said.

  ‘Then what if we each go to a different place?’ Kubeck suggested. ‘The Guardians must be stretched pretty thin if they’re guarding the Sicarii back in the Underlands and three of them are here.’

  ‘I don’t know how to do it,’ I said. And how would we fight Persephone with only one of us?

  ‘We will show you, Mistress,’ Shenanigans said.

  ‘One of us should travel with Mistress Lucky,’ Kubeck added. ‘If she is to go to Naples, we can’t leave her alone until we find our way back to her.’

  ‘If you, Shenanigans and Pyrites all appear at different locations, I can travel with Mistress Lucky to Naples,’ Kerfuffle said.

  ‘That’s settled then?’ I asked. My guard nodded and I took a deep breath and gave them a shaky smile: we finally had some sort of strategy.

  *

  While Jamie was keeping Pasqual occupied I quickly changed, thankful I’d thought to throw some spare clothes into my bag in the back of the van. The purloined skirt had become extremely irksome; I was well and truly fed up with flashing my knickers every time I climbed on or off Pyrites, or did anything else even vaguely more active than walking.

  As soon as I was back in jeans, we all sloped off in different directions, counting seconds as we went. Kubeck was to go first; twenty seconds later Shenanigans would send Pyrites back, then after another twenty seconds he’d go back himself. After another twenty seconds Kerfuffle and I would leave, and if there was trouble, he would send me on my way to Naples while fighting off any Guardians who might try and stop us. He would follow on later, if he could.

  Kerfuffle opened the van door and inside, there was emptiness. I took a final glance at Jamie, who was still keeping Pasqual occupied. I smiled; perhaps I could trust him in some things. Kerfuffle stepped up and into the doorframe and reached back, holding out his hand. I took his soft, warm palm in mine and stepped inside—

  —and we were gone.

  We fell, but a few moments before we landed it felt as if we were buoyed up on a cushion of air, and we landed in an upright position, hitting the ground feet-first.

  We were in a cave; one I recognised from what felt like a long time ago. It was the cave I’d hidden in when we had first gone on the run from Amaliel.

  ‘In here!’ I heard a voice call from outside.

  ‘Bollocks, the Guardians have found us already,’ Kerfuffle said. ‘Quick, this way—’

  He led me to the small cave where I’d found food and a box of blankets last time I’d been here with Pyrites. ‘Quick,’ he said, ‘through there.’

  As I dropped to my knees I glanced back over my shoulder. ‘Aren’t you—?’

 
But I never got to ask the question because Kerfuffle was already waddling away to put himself between me and the two Guardians who had stepped inside the cave.

  ‘Move aside,’ one said.

  ‘Make me,’ Kerfuffle growled, and as I dropped through the hole into pitch-black dark, I heard the sound of fighting. As I hurtled through the air, I prayed I would end up where I needed to be; I pictured Mount Vesuvius as it had appeared on Google; if they weren’t there yet, they would be soon enough.

  Or would they? Jamie had told me that when Jinx had left Pompeii, it had been consumed by molten rock – so would he actually be on Vesuvius? What if he wasn’t? In my mind I could see him stalking Mediterranean streets wearing that damn leather coat.

  Then I began to slow and was buffeted about for a moment before my feet hit the ground.

  ‘Well, hello,’ a voice I knew said. ‘How nice of you to join us.’

  Twenty-One

  That I wasn’t on the rocky slopes of Mount Vesuvius was immediately obvious. I was standing on white marble tiles in a large, airy room reminiscent of the considerably smaller villa Jinx, Jamie and I had been staying in before this whole nightmare had begun.

  Persephone was elegantly arranged on a chaise longue, dressed – or no, arrayed – in a silk embroidered dressing gown, a crystal flute in hand. Amaliel was standing beside her, gazing at me with hot-red eyes. Jinx was crouching at the end of the chaise longue by her feet.

  ‘Interesting little trick,’ she said. ‘You must explain to me how you do that.’

  Amaliel gave one of his gurgling laughs. ‘Had she any control or idea of what she was doing, do you think she would have come here?’

  ‘I don’t know – you tell me.’

  ‘I suspect it is her connection to the Deathbringer.’

  ‘She no longer has any connection to the Deathbringer,’ Persephone spat.

  ‘There must be, otherwise she wouldn’t have been drawn here. There is no other way she could have found this place.’

  Persephone gave a petulant snort and took a swig of her drink.

  I made myself look at Jinx, though I was scared at what I might see in his eyes. He stared back at me, his green and gold eyes glowing and his lips curled into a snarly smile, although he didn’t look angry; it was more like he was pleased to see me in some dark and possibly nasty way. I tried not to read too much into it; everyone was playing games.

  Persephone took a sip from her glass. She regarded me over its rim. ‘I’m glad you’re here. You’ve arrived just in time to see the next stage of our plan to bring your pathetic little human world to its knees.’

  ‘You think it’ll be that easy?’

  ‘I know it will.’

  ‘Humans are used to catastrophes befalling them; to them such calamities are what they call “acts of God”. They happen all the time.’

  ‘Of course, they’re used to a catastrophic event maybe once or twice a year, but not once or twice a month, or a week, or maybe even every day.’

  I fought to keep my voice calm and measured, which was difficult when I could see images of dying children flicking through my head like some ghastly newsreel. ‘Why would you want to do this? What possible satisfaction would you get from causing such misery?’

  ‘You said it yourself,’ Amaliel said.

  ‘I did?’

  ‘ “Acts of God”, you called them, and we will be those gods. Your people will bend the knee to us, or they will suffer the consequences.’

  ‘Really?’ I forced my lips into a quizzical smile. The pair of them really were stark staring bonkers – but then, I supposed most megalomaniac mass-murderers were somewhere on the psychotic scale.

  ‘Humans have always needed gods,’ Persephone said. ‘Throughout their history they have worshipped and prayed to all manner of creatures, even though they can’t see them or touch them. This time they will have gods who will stand before them and answer them. Once they have seen and felt our power, they will flock to us and venerate us in their billions.’

  As she spoke, with each sentence her voice got a tad louder, a bit more strident. In a moment of sheer psychobabble I could see her in my head, marching around with a small black moustache glued to her top lip and making dramatic arm gestures and I began to giggle. I tried to stifle it, but I couldn’t.

  Persephone’s eyes narrowed. ‘You think this is funny? You think this is a joke?’

  ‘No,’ I said, ‘how could I possibly find two people as sick as you are funny? That you two losers actually believe humans will worship you is, however, hilarious.’

  ‘I hope you find it all so amusing when you are staked out on the mountainside waiting to be consumed by molten rock. I doubt you will die laughing.’

  Amaliel glided forward a few steps and held out a hand, gesturing that she should stop her tirade. ‘Where is the Guardian?’

  ‘Forget the bloody Guardian,’ Persephone said. ‘He didn’t catch up with us before and he won’t be able to find us now.’

  He whirled around to face her, and as he towered over her, a flicker of fear passed across her face, so fleetingly that it was possible that I’d imagined it – but I didn’t think I had.

  She gave another huff. ‘Just get on with it.’

  ‘The Guardian,’ he said, returning his attention to me. ‘Is he on his way?’

  ‘Where’s Vaybian?’ I countered.

  ‘He’s somewhere safe.’

  ‘Let me see him.’

  ‘You will soon enough,’ Persephone said. She stretched and got to her feet in one fluid movement. ‘Well, as she’s here and her Guardian lover isn’t, I think we can assume she has come alone.’

  ‘Lover?’ I heard Jinx mutter.

  Persephone reached out and ran her knuckles across Jinx’s cheek. This time he didn’t flinch away. ‘Don’t you remember?’ she said to him, then laughed; a tinkling laugh that would have sounded really pretty if it hadn’t been so cruel. ‘Of course you don’t. How could you?’ She took another sip from her glass then rested it against her lips, painting the rim with blood-red lipstick. ‘You, she and the Guardian were apparently quite the ménage à trois.’

  She rested her head on his shoulder and slowly, insultingly, looked me up and down. ‘Who would have thought it? Maybe you take after dear Mama more than I thought.’

  Jinx was looking at me in an angry, feral way when I heard a door open behind me, and I turned sideways, keeping one eye on Persephone and Amaliel, to see three men walk into the room: two came to a halt on either side of me and the third stood beside Persephone.

  ‘You were right,’ Joseph told her. ‘You said she’d come.’

  ‘Of course she came. She still has this misguided idea that she’ll somehow take the Deathbringer from me.’

  He folded his arms and gave me a quizzical look. ‘Do you really believe that?’

  Persephone moved a little closer to him and squeezed her arm through his. ‘And you said Veronica had loose knickers,’ I muttered under my breath.

  She gave another of her tinkling laughs, which weren’t lovely at all; in fact, they were really becoming quite annoying.

  ‘Joseph is a very dear friend,’ she said.

  Yes, I got that much.

  ‘Now,’ she said, ‘we have a very busy day ahead of us tomorrow so I suggest we get some rest.’

  ‘I think to wait until tomorrow would be a mistake,’ Joseph started, but Persephone lifted a finger to his lips to hush him.

  ‘We will go ahead as planned,’ she said grandly.

  Joseph glanced her way. ‘If she’s here, the Guardians won’t be far behind. Not to mention her personal guards, which include a pretty impressive dragon.’

  ‘I think Persephone has hit the nail on the head; the Soulseer appears to have come alone in a pathetic attempt to save the Deathbringer, and if that is the case, there is no need to worry about the Guardians,’ Amaliel said. ‘They will have been successfully misdirected for the time being.’

  I wondered exact
ly what he meant by that.

  Persephone tapped the rim of the flute against her lips and glanced Amaliel’s way. ‘Anyway, Daddy and I don’t want people to die in their beds – where’s the fun in that? We want them to see the flames shooting up into the sky, it turning black with rock and ash. We want to see them running, trying to find an escape when there is none.’

  ‘You truly are one very sick woman,’ I said.

  ‘And you will soon be a very dead one.’

  ‘So will you – you just don’t know it yet.’

  ‘Save the dramatics; they won’t save you.’ She waved her hand and the men flanking me grabbed my arms, although she must have known human men couldn’t hold me if I didn’t want them to.

  ‘And before you even think of giving either of these gentlemen any trouble, remember, we have your sister’s lover. You hurt them, and he will pay in blood.’

  ‘Like father, like daughter,’ I said, as I let them lead me away. I glanced at Jinx to see his eyes were following me. His expression was very dark indeed. My breath caught in my throat as Persephone drew him up and reached out to run her fingers down his cheek, then stepped in close for a kiss.

  There was no shudder this time; no drawing away. He pulled her into his arms in an almost savage movement and kissed her hard.

  *

  I was locked in a small square cellar underneath the villa. The walls and floor were lined with rough-cut marble slabs that were more of a dirty yellow than those above. At the top of one wall there was a narrow barred window, which I assumed was more for air circulation than anything else, as it would have taken someone the height of Shenanigans to be able to peer out.

  The good news was that it became clear Persephone and Amaliel weren’t going to take Joseph’s advice, for it grew dark outside without anyone coming to get me. All I could do was hope the others found us in time – if they were okay. As for the Guardians … I didn’t like the sound of Amaliel’s comment about them at all.